Tasmanian devils with contagious cancer exhibit a constricted T-cell repertoire diversity

The Tasmanian devil ( Sarcophilus harrisii ) is threatened by a contagious cancer, known as Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD). A highly diverse T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire is crucial for successful host defence against cancers. By investigating TCR beta chain diversity in devils of different a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Communications biology 2019-03, Vol.2 (1), p.99-99, Article 99
Main Authors: Cheng, Yuanyuan, Makara, Mariano, Peel, Emma, Fox, Samantha, Papenfuss, Anthony T., Belov, Katherine
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
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Animals
Antiretroviral drugs
Biology
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Computational Biology - methods
Female
Gene Expression Profiling
High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
Immunosenescence - genetics
Life Sciences
Lymphocytes T
Male
Marsupialia - immunology
Neoplasms - genetics
Neoplasms - immunology
Neoplasms - metabolism
Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell - metabolism
T cell receptors
T-Lymphocytes - immunology
T-Lymphocytes - metabolism
Transcription, Genetic
Tumors
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Summary:The Tasmanian devil ( Sarcophilus harrisii ) is threatened by a contagious cancer, known as Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD). A highly diverse T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire is crucial for successful host defence against cancers. By investigating TCR beta chain diversity in devils of different ages, we show that the T-cell repertoire in devils constricts in their second year of life, which may explain the higher DFTD prevalence in older devils. Unexpectedly, we also observed a pronounced decline in TCR diversity and T cell clonal expansion in devils after DFTD infection. These findings overturned the previous assumption that DFTD did not directly impact host immunity. Yuanyuan Cheng et al. showed that the T-cell repertoire diversity of Tasmanian devils diminishes during their second year of life which may explain the prevalence of devil facial tumor disease in older devils. Infection with this disease also impacts T-cell diversity highlighting a previously unknown effect of the devil facial tumor disease on host immunity.
ISSN:2399-3642
2399-3642
DOI:10.1038/s42003-019-0342-5